


Oncoming Frost

by angel1876



Series: The Oncoming Frost [4]
Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Drama, F/F, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Isolation, M/M, Recovery, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-01-11 08:37:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18426960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel1876/pseuds/angel1876
Summary: Perfection is unobtainable, and there are consequences to every action.





	1. Chapter 1

There are two fallen branches in the gathering-place, and there are two clans to stand upon them.

These clans have ruled the forest for untold generations. Perhaps they've always been there, since the beginning of time. They stand, for they are governed by their warrior ancestors, the great Starclan above.

One group was called Sunclan. So named for Rock-hill, which served as the heart of the clan, its rocks reaching up toward the sun to lift their leader higher than any tree in the forest. The other was Rainclan, their opposite, who made their home in the lowest valley, close to the Two-leg's territory.

In this time, a cat named Flametail took on the name Flamestar.

Flamestar is the son of a coupling between rogue and leader, made deputy by his mother and so taking on her mantle after a badger took her last life. He is a calm, level headed warrior with a cool demeanor. This is not the first time he's lost a family member. A long time ago his little sister, Applepaw, vanished from the forest. She was never seen again. He'd not even seen her during his naming ceremony, though he'd seen many others that'd he'd once been close to.

Up on that rock, he turns his muzzle to Silverpelt, and he offers up a prayer to Starclan.

His prayer unanswered, he tries again. This time, he prays to his mother.

Redstar comes to him, her familiar voice betraying who she was, for as a Starclan cat her fur was now unfamiliar to him. Instead of the brilliant red he knew her for, she looked to be a living piece of the sky, the twinkle of starlight illuminated in every strand. She comes, and she says that Applepaw is not in Starclan. Nor is she in the Dark Forest. She exists in no afterlife that Redstar knows of.

The loss feels fresh, somehow. His litter-mate, an aspiring medicine cat. Their mother had been so proud with how fast she'd adapted to the work, hearing all the praise the previous medicine cat had for her. They were all devastated when she vanished, and though they'd waited for as long as they possibly could, there'd come a time where a new apprentice had to be chosen. It was Maplepelt who took the role. A fine medicine cat, one to be grateful for.

But Applepaw was still gone.

Redstar promised him, on that rock. She promised him atop the very heart of Sunclan, that she would do everything in her power to find her daughter, his sister, again.

To cope with all that has happened, Flamestar seeks comfort in the rest of his clan. A tail curled about a friend's back, the weight of one shoulder pressed against another. It's contact that draws him in, not through an attraction to touch, but through what that touch offers him. Flamestar has a secret he's not told any of his clan, not even his deputy and mate, Blueclaw. 

With contact comes the power of memory. Flamestar can enter a cat's memory, feel their emotions as if they are his own, delve back to the past and relive anything they'd ever experienced as clearly as if he were them. They, too, would relive the memory, but without the knowledge that he was controlling it. They always assumed it was just their own thoughts wandering. It was this power that got him through his worst of times.

Curled up atop Rock-hill with Blueclaw, he spends his days pouring over his deputy's best memories. This shared happiness soothes him. He feels he has strength, enough, to be the leader he needs to be.

Rainclan, too, has suffered the loss of their leader, though this happened two moons earlier. To contrast with Sunclan, Rainclan has no use for rouges, and only grudging respect for cats of other clans. Darkstar challenged this belief with his love of a runaway kittypet, a cat he named Beetlefur. As leader his word was law, and so his clan had to accept her. 

His death marked the end of that tolerance. Greystar, his successor, revoked her status of warrior the moment he took over. He didn't chase her out of the territory, claiming respect for his predecessor, but in truth it was an act of cruelty. He denied her access to the medicine cat. He denied her fresh-kill, and he denied her the right to hunt with others. In his eyes, he thought it better that she might leave of her own will rather than be chased out. He would prove to her that she wasn't fit for clan life.

Beetlefur was stubborn, however. She refused to leave, choosing to take care of her own self, rebelling against the clan.

Around the time Sunclan lost their leader, Beetlefur gave birth to Darkstar's last offspring. A small white kitten, with a patch of black around one eye, one ear, and one leg. She named her Frostkit. 

At first, Beetlefur was an attentive, doting parent, going to great lengths to care for her kit in spite of the challenges Rainclan lay in her path. For all outside appearances, she seemed to love. That love was only surface-level.

Beetlefur is not the kind of cat that cared for others outside of what she thought they should be. She tends to love an idea of someone over their reality, and if that reality opposes her image of them, she will not hesitate to come down in wrath. 

Frostkit is her beloved kitten, but no more than that. Not a cat in her own right, not a thinking, feeling member of her kin whose opinion should be deemed important. This fact is further aggravated by Rainclan's mistreatment, for Beetlefur's fury is increasingly stirred, and Frostkit is the only one around helpless to fight back. Any complaint is met with the queen throwing fellow clan members in her face, citing that they would not care for her, not like she does.

Whenever Beetlefur is gone, a shadow creeps into the nursery.

This shadow is undeniably a cat, yet everything about her feels unnatural. Frostkit thinks of her as something cut from a sky without stars, her form broken only by a pair of eerie yellow eyes. An awful stench follows her wherever she goes, a stinking, musky scent that words fail to describe.

She comes to Frostkit in her worst moments, coiling a tail about her. The shadow's fur is soft, gentle, but lacks heat. She offers words that Frostkit takes to heart. 

"Don't hold your anger in," she says. "Come to me, talk to me, when you need to. Tell me everything that hurts. Do this, because if you let if build unchecked, then your anger will one day destroy you."

She tells her that this life will be difficult, and that sometimes Beetlefur will be irrational, selfish, and cruel. Her clanmates will be apathetic at best, bullies at worst. She says that everyone around her shall feel like her enemy, but that it's important to be strong throughout, because Starclan is waiting.

As the daughter of a rouge, she says that the chance to even get into Starclan is an honor. Frostkit should count herself lucky, and do everything she can to be loyal to the clan in spite of it all.

Frostkit asks this shadow her name.

It's Nightwhisker. A cat from the Dark Forest. She makes Frostkit promise not to tell anyone of her presence on Rainclan's territory.

From that night on, Frostkit does all that she is told. She's made an apprentice, mentored by her mother, and learning to hunt is the worst experience of her life. Mistakes are punished with mockery, defiance forced down with words of acid. Beetlefur is outside the realm of prediction, outside the realm of any sort of fairness. Things that were either ignored or rewarded one day are worth the worst of insults the next.

The older she is the worse it gets.

Still, she learns the territory. Frostpaw learns to hunt, where the boarders are.

She learns of a Two-leg place that sits near Rainclan, one that she must never approach.

"They breed dogs there," her mother tells her. "It's not safe. Those who go don't come back."

When it was finally time, Frostpaw was given her warrior name. 

Frostwhisper.

It's the familiarity that startles her more than the word itself. Whisper, a term for a cat who is exceptionally quiet.

She hates everything about it. She's only quiet because they make her, it's not who she is. They named her Frostwhisper because they see her as something weak, small. Someone who is insignificant in a crowd. It's not a name to be proud of.

Yet it's completely expected, given all that they've done to her so far.

Her mother makes her stand vigil, and there's no point in this because the clan couldn't care less to begin with, but Frostwhisper has no choice.

She sits, and stares out into the darkness.

Like every other time she's found herself alone, a weight settles next to her. Nightwhisper sits at her side, her smell horrid, her body cut from the void itself. There's a sense of pride in her voice that Frostwhisper can't relate to. "You did it, you got your warrior name."

Frostwhisper ignores that comment. Instead, she says, "you know a lot about Beetlefur, about this clan. They gave me your name."

These facts are met with silence.

"...she's your mother, too. You're my sister...aren't you?"

The answer is yes.

Nightwhisper talks of a mistake she'd made, of not showing loyalty to the clan. She'd turned on them, and this was why she was fated for the Dark Forest. Frostwhisper, though, Frostwhisper can avoid that. This is all she wants, to protect her from ending up in the same place. She wants her to get to Starclan.

Frostwhisper doubts that anything, even Starclan, can be worth this. Nightwhisper responds by telling her what the Dark Forest is like.

It is a place of suffering, where one is reminded of their sins every moment of the day. There is no sleep. No hunting to sate hunger, no water to ease thirst. She is followed with what she's done, just like a shadow.

The fear these words stir only lasts for so long.

One day, not long after her warrior naming, Frostwhisper fought with Beetlefur. It's not the first time she and her mother came to odds, but it was worse, now, than it'd ever been before. Instead of running to Nightwhisper, she ran out of camp, seeking solitude.

She went to the place they'd told her not to go, the Two-leg territory. She stayed there, for a long time, because no one would come near this place.

She found a fence that stretched an untold distance in either direction.

Frostwhisper could smell a scent in the air, coming from the other side. Heavy, bitter and horrible. It was a scent she knew well, her sister was on the other side. She sniffed at the line between wooden planks, feels something move, but the gaps are too narrow for her to see through.

A tree grew tall, reaching a single branch over the top of the fence. She climbed up, made her way to the end of that branch. It is not Nightwhisper that stood on the ground below.

There was a trio of great, horrid beasts, thick muscles wrapped in fur with gaping, fanged maws. 

They see her and emit the most monstrous of noises.

"Wait! Come back!" 

She turns and she sees Nightwhisper, the void of her fur fluffed out as far as it would go. Her meow is high pitched, panicked in a way that Frostwhisper's never heard.

"We can talk about this. Come on, please come back."

And something clicks. Something she's hesitant to think of, at first. Something that makes her want to dig her claws into the branch under her and pull apart the bark. 

Frostwhisper comes back, climbs down to the ground. Nightwhisper curls a tail about her side. It's not comforting. Before her sister can say anything, Frostwhisper asks her, "Why do those dogs smell like you?"

There's a pause, a stiffening. She can feel the tension roll in.

Frostwhisper rephrases the question, an edge in her voice. "Why do you smell like those dogs?"

She doesn't need an answer. She knows.

Nightwhisper smells like dog because that was how she died. And the only way for her to have died from something trapped on the other side of the fence...? 

"You climbed the tree, and jumped down to them, didn't you?"

Was that the mistake, then? Was that the thing she'd done that Starclan couldn't forgive her for?

Nightwhisper tries to explain. She abandoned her clan. Yes, it's just as Frostwhisper said, she jumped into the dog pen, and in doing so she turned her back on everything her clan was. This was why loyalty to Starclan was important, that Frostwhisper might avoid-

But Frostwhisper was inconsolable. Anger flared through her, from nosetip to tail. She asks Nightwhisper, "Do you intend to lead me down the same path as you?"

Nightwhisper recoils. No. It was never her intention, she just...she had no one as a kit, and she thought being there for her sister would make things better. 

"Keeping me here isn't helping! If you wanted to help me, you should've taken me away!"

"-but if you leave, y-you won't go to Starclan!"

"Starclan doesn't give a single mousedung about either of us! Why should I care about them??"

That day, in her anger, Frostwhisper swore off both the clan she was born into, and Starclan up above. Without ceremony, without a single word to anyone else, and without heeding anything Nightwhisper said in opposition, Frostwhisper left the territory of Rainclan.

Frostwhisper wasn't going to stand this treatment any longer. She was going to go start her own clan, so that cats like herself and like her sister would have some place to go.

She wasn't going to be Frostwhisper anymore. Frostwhisper was quiet, submissive, pathetic.

She was going to be a leader. 

She was going to be Froststar.


	2. Chapter 2

Nightwhisper was horrified by what she had done.

She'd grown up an isolated kit, hated by everyone and suffering abuse from the few who claimed to love her. For a long time, she'd tried to do all that they asked, but in the end her strength wavered. She did exactly what her sister now accused her of. Caught in a loop of anger and despair, she chose the fangs of dogs over life with her clan.

The daughter of a rogue, a half-kittypet, a thing that was less than her kin by blood. Starclan punished her for her actions, and so she resided in the Dark Forest. 

Nightwhisper knew Beetlefur was pregnant at the time of her death. 

It was with this knowledge that she came to haunt the nursery. She came and found a little kit, just a newborn, and she stayed at that kit's side as much as she dared. 

What she had done was unforgivable. Starclan's word was absolute, they were the final authority in all of existence, they were everything that was good and just. Now a cat of the Dark Forest, Nightwhisper was everything horrid and evil. She had no right to step paw on Rainclan's territory. 

But still...she knew Frostkit's life would be difficult. She thought, perhaps, if she'd had just one cat on her side in life, things wouldn't have turned out the way they had. If she could be there for Frostkit, she could stop her from making the same mistake, and save her from sharing her fate.

Her sister, self-proclaimed Froststar, left her clan despite every protest. No matter what string of words Nightwhisper used, nothing made her stop. Nothing made her repent to Starclan. 

There was no doubt in Nightwhisper's mind that this was her fault. 

It was the dogs. She'd known Froststar was smart, she should have worked harder to keep her from figuring it out. Blinded by what she saw as an injustice, Froststar was going to throw everything away to spite the only beings capable of keeping her safe.

Froststar didn't understand, Nightwhisper was _bad._ No one should be so upset on the behalf of a Dark Forest cat.

Helpless to do anything else, Nightwhisper followed her sister as she traveled deeper into the forest. She picked a spot in between boarders, forming a territory that took up rogue space, and which cut a sizable chunk out of both the other clans. This was done on purpose.   
  
From there, Froststar began to call in fellow cats. 

Rogues from the forest. Kittypets from the Two-leg place. With so few members, Froststar wasn't picky about who she let in. 

Nightwhisper hid from them. No one wants to see their new perspective home haunted by a shadow. They would destroy her on sight, surely. 

When Froststar was alone, though, Nightwhisper came to her. The cave Froststar named as Leader's Den offered privacy. One night, in desperation, she resorted to begging. Stop this, return home. Starclan won't like what she's doing. The other clans won't like what she's doing.

Froststar turned on her.

It was so fast she could hardly understand what was happening, so sudden she didn't know how to react. Weight, tooth and claw, pain flaring up and down her back. All at once she's pinned down, her face pressed into the small rocks littering the cave floor. 

Nightwhisper started apologizing instinctively. Froststar snarled at her in cold and vicious command.

"I am not going back. Do not ask me again."

"Y-yes, I understand, I'm sorry-"

Nightwhisper was held down for several moments more before Froststar finally let her up. She scrambles back, withdrawing to hide in the shadow of the cave wall.

When Dark Forest cats are injured, they bleed smoke. Little wisps of Nightwhisper's essence float upward, curling into the air, her soul burning where it stood. Her legs shook under her weight. 

It didn't feel so different than when Beetlefur got mad at her.

The kit she'd spent so many moons trying to raise... Froststar wasn't that kit anymore.

Nightwhisper stayed at her sister's side, but she no longer dare spoke to her, not after that. 

The clan, Frostclan, continues to grow. 

More cats mean more mouths to feed. It isn't long before they're noticed, Sunclan is quick to defend their boarder and the prey living therein.

The expected dispute turns violent. Frostclan chases a Sunclan patrol away from the new territory line, and the leader responds to this challenge with a personal attack. Flamestar and Froststar face off. It's a quick fight. Frostclan's numbers are half of Sunclans, and the fighters they do have are only partly trained. 

Flamestar decrees that the rogues involved will only need leave their territory.

Froststar, though...

Froststar is a Rainclan cat. A young one, at that. Barely out of her apprentice days. He decides that she'll be returned to Rainclan, that they'll be the ones who choose how to deal with her.

Nightwhisper is there, of course. Nightwhisper hears this, and while she wants her sister to return...she knows she can't go back to them like this. A half-clan cat, dragged in by the scruff and charged with crimes that would get even a respected deputy banished? They would kill her on sight. 

Flamestar barely gets the words out before the shadow of a Dark Forest cat raises out of the ground and lashes out at his followers. The cat called Froststar runs toward freedom, the new cat stays behind to buy her time.

It all makes sense to him in that moment. The Dark Forest was sly, manipulative. This shadow must be the mastermind, a monster pulling an innocent cat's strings to turn her against the forest. Whatever the Dark Forest cat was telling Froststar, it was a lie, and it needed to be stopped.

The clan lashes out with lethal intent. Blueclaw, Flamestar's deputy, gets her pinned. 

It's here that the fight stops. The shadow accepts her defeat easier than he'd expected, growing still under Blueclaw's weight. Flamestar approaches to deliver the final blow, but just as he raises his paw, a voice calls out to him. One word, an echo through his skull that no one else heard.

_Wait._

He freezes mid-motion, his mother's command unmistakable. The scent of flowers and grass tickle his nose, and for a moment, he could have sworn he saw the twinkle of Silverpelt in his mind's eye. Flamestar stares down at the trembling shadow, taking in a pair of glowing eyes that stared blankly back at him.

Slowly, he lowers his foreleg. The pads of his paw press against her shoulder, harmless, and the image overtakes him so fast that he yanked himself away as if burned. 

Pain! Booming, thunderous noise, bloody fangs! Tearing, crushing pressure! Fear! Agony! Anger! _Hate!_

_Dog! Dog! Dog!!_

For a moment Flamestar saw himself through her eyes, and for a moment, he saw the vicious gaze of a scorned dog, and he recoiled from the cowering shadow in horror.

"...let her go," he said, voice edged with the effort it took to keep it from wavering. 

A leader's word must be followed. His clan argued with him, but he didn't yield. Though reluctant, Blueclaw got off of her, and after a moment she ran off, disappearing into the darkness from where she came.

That night, he stood at Sunclan's highest peak. He prayed to his mother for an answer.

She said, "Focus on your own clan for now. Difficult times fast approach, you must prepare yourself for the oncoming frost."

He could guess that she didn't mean the looming threat of leaf-bare. 

Elsewhere, Froststar regrouped with her clan. Anger stirred in her numbers, frustration at their defeat, fear at the strength they'd seen on display.

Froststar held firm in her resolve. She raised her voice, and told them that if they wanted to change anything, they had to keep their courage even now. She told them, her wounds clear against her white fur, blood spattered across her front and one foreleg rendered immobile, that their strength would grow only if they kept fighting for their goals.

It was here that a murmur broke through the crowd. A single voice, small and flat. "...you have injured."

Every head in the clearing turned toward that voice. Froststar felt herself freeze, her pulse thudding in her skull at the sight of the newcomer. For a split second, she thought Flamestar had followed them, but no...this was not Flamestar.

She was the splitting image of him, blue-eyed, long-furred, ginger and white. But there were differences here and there. Her expression was softer, if still somewhat distant. Her fur was in much better condition, smooth, well groomed. There was a touch more white on her muzzle, if you looked close. She stepped into the crowd without fear, her tail held high, signaling a lack of violent intent. 

"You have injured," she repeats. "Let me help."

"...you're a medicine cat?" Froststar inquires, hesitant. 

"I am."

"From what clan?"  
  
"...from no clan."

The words linger in the air.

Froststar lets her come into their group, and she treats every injured cat present. She works tirelessly, applying herbs, wrapping up open wounds with spiderweb. With two sticks and a pair of vines stripped of thorns, she wraps Froststars injured leg with instructions not to move it for a while.

This cat calls herself Moonwind. 

When the work is done, Froststar invites Moonwind into the Leaders-den. In private, she asks Moonwind to join the clan. They need a medicine cat desperately. 

Moonwind agrees. 

Days go by. Wounds heal. Froststar gradually gets to know what kind of a cat Moonwind is. 

She's a very quiet cat, is only really active when there's something to be done, or when someone takes the time to interact with her. Otherwise she curls up in a little ball and brushes her tail back and fourth across the dirt. Her eyes are often vacant, somewhere far away. 

Froststar learns that when Moonwind was young, she was taken from her clan. Taken away and given to a two-leg family. They weren't evil. They were quite nice at times. 

...but they weren't her kin. They could not speak to her. 

She was alone for a long time. She took to telling herself stories, long-winded narratives that developed as the moons went by. She tells herself stories, even now.

Moonwind named herself, for there was no one around to name her, and she rejects any kitty-pet term she was offered. 

Not too long ago, a cat made of starlight came to her. One with a familiar voice, scent, and fur. It was she who made it possible for Moonwind to escape, and it was she who lead her there, to the crowd of injured cats, where she was needed most.

((Froststar was loath to accept help from Starclan, but she said nothing of it. It wasn't Moonwind she was mad at.))

Nights passed slowly. Moonwind never left the Leaders-den. The herbs and other necessary supplies were soon gathered into a corner, where they could stay until needed. Not a week after, and Moonwind admitted to Froststar a sense of unreality. She feels as if she'll wake up and be back at the Two-leg place, or else find herself alone in the forest, abandoned. Despite her efforts, she can't quite shake the feeling that she was still by herself.

From that day onward, Froststar took to regular grooming sessions and conversation. She drew her out of the cave and did her best to help Moonwind connect to the other cats. 

Moonwind, in turn, told Froststar her stories late at night.

More days passed. Nearly a full moon went by. They continued to gather cats.

Froststar's sister was nowhere to be found. 

Worry, stress, and then anger stirred within her. Flamestar...it must have been Flamestar. Flamestar must have done something to her. 

Must have killed her a second time. Nightwhisper was her sister. Her sister, whom she had hurt deeply in their last interaction, was lost to her _._ She'd not forgive this, but still...she held no intent to destroy the clan. No. Right now, the goal was to gather enough cats and train them to hold enough strength to stand their own. That would be worse than destruction, the cruelest revenge she could think of, to build Frostclan up and then watch it thrive despite the judgement and dismissal of all others. She would rub their existence in the other clans faces. She would thrive.

By now Rainclan had noticed their presence. For the moment, she withdrew the territory back across both boarders. Respecting the line while gathering the numbers needed to cross it.

One day, Beetlefur came to the clan. She'd left Rainclan in search of her kit, and had been told not to come back. She was different now. Froststar had never imagined her mother as something so small and frail. For a moment, the old cat was happy to see her, only to recoil and shrink into the ground when faced with Froststar's rejection. 

Frostkit...felt bad. Watching Beetlefur react like that. 

But she knew this behavior, she knew the act for what it was. A mere ploy to gain pity, Beetlefur wanted her to feel bad so she could drag her under her claw again. Froststar refused to be hurt by her again.

Beetlefur was chased out of the clan. Without Rainclan to return to, Beetlefur was alone, once more a rogue. It hurt to do. Froststar was proud of herself for doing it.  

...  
  
Nightwhisper, of course, had not been killed a second time.

On the day of the territorial dispute, when Flamestar chose to let her go, she'd fled into the forest and rushed a path toward the place that Frostclan called home. She had every intent to return to her sister, to go back to the cave and stand by her side. 

Before she'd made it halfway, a figure came to block her path.

She skidded to a halt, scrambling back, struck by a terror far deeper than what she'd felt during her fight with Flamestar. Something worse than dogs, worse than anything else in the physical world. 

Before her stood a Starclan cat. Her fur twinkled with an eternal light, her eyes burned like the sun. She came forward, movements fluid and full of grace, her voice gentle, a cruelty that coiled Nightwhispers claws into the dirt. 

"Don't be afraid. I am Redstar. I...want to talk to you."

Redstar.

Redstar...is everything they told her about Starclan. Absolute, eternal. Nightwhisper feels small and worthless when compared to her light. She presses herself harder into the ground, listening, hanging onto every word. 

The dead leader...offers an apology. 

She is sorry for what Starclan has done. In the past several moons, she's spent her time combing through every inch of Silverpelt above. She's explored the forest in the search for something precious. In that search, she discovered what they did to her. 

Nightwhisper listens, and she doesn't know how to deal with those words. She shakes her head, her own voice trembling, raised just enough to offer a counter-argument. 

She tells Redstar that it wasn't a mistake. Starclan doesn't make mistakes. If...if she wants her to do something, then fine...but...but don't _lie._ She can't handle being lied to about this. 

Redstar aches with sympathy. As a mother who would do anything for her kits, the sight of Nightwhisper trembling before her, convinced by all from the moment of her birth that she was worthless...it tears her apart inside. 

It's not a lie, she insists. Redstar moves closer, keeping her movements as non-threatening as possible, and brushes her side against Nightwhisper's own, letting her tail curl about her chest. When was the last time anyone touched this kit without the intent to cause harm?

Nightwhisper's senses are overwhelmed by the scent of flowers, the sweetness of grass, her cold Dark Forest flesh warmed by Starclan's light. Redstar tells her that Starclan isn't as perfect and all-knowing as they wanted everyone to think. She says that things need to change within their ranks. There's a lack of communication between Sunclan's warrior ancestors, and those of Rainclan's. The former is too complacent, oblivious that there are problems. The later is cruel, abusive and quite unbecoming of the Warrior Code. 

She tells her that Starclan needs new cats, cats like her. It was absolutely a mistake, an outright _crime,_ that they sent her to the Dark Forest. 

Redstar wants her to come to Starclan.

This...terrifies Nightwhisper. Redstar knows this, understands this goes against her world-view. She knows she is breaking the pedestal which Starclan once stood on. 

When Nightwhisper runs, Redstar follows. She doesn't let Nightwhisper return to Frostclan.

It takes time, an entire moon, to get her to listen.

The forest is changing. Frostclan's numbers match those of the older clans, now. They take back the boarders they once gave up, and in the chill of leaf-bear, it is definitely noticed. Sunclan allows this intrusion, for now. Rainclan fights back, but is never able to drive their opponents away for long.

At the time of the Gathering, when the leaders of both Sunclan and Rainclan meet, Frostclan appears among their ranks.

Greystar cries his anger, and only the pact of non-violence in this place keeps him from attacking. Flamestar is calmer, if stiff and uneasy...

...he recognizes his sister, Applepaw, next to Frostclan's leader. 

Breaking away from his own clan, he moves to approach her, only to be blocked by Frostclan cats. He calls out to her. 

She tells him that she's sorry. She cares for him, and she recognizes that he is her brother...but she tells him that it's been too long. She doesn't know him, and she doesn't want to leave her friends for a clan she felt abandoned her, even if abandoning her wasn't their intent. It's not Sunclan's fault. It's not hers, either, and she doesn't want to suffer for it.

Her name is Moonwind, now. Moonwind asks him to respect that.

He does.

After this, in a voice of authority, Froststar declares her intent to act and exist as the leader of a new clan. Her territory is already formed. She is not willing to negotiate. 

An outcry among the cats. Flamestar calls for his own clan to be calm, but Greystar is outright enraged. The members of his clan protest not just the creation of a new clan, but the creation of one by a half-rogue kitty-pet that shouldn't have been in the forest, anyway.

Greystar realizes his mistake too late, the angered murmur of Sunclan cats speaking for itself. He'd just indirectly insulted not just their leader, but the leader before him. 

Froststar spits back at him, throwing everything he and his clan did to her out in the open, she tells him that he is part of the reason Frostclan needs to exist in the first place.

As if in response, and despite the fact that there wasn't a cloud in the sky...a bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree. 

A heavy branch falls, hitting no cat, but landing in such a way as to form a three part circle with the other two logs that the leaders stand upon.

Flamestar is the first to speak. He calls out for every cat to hear that Starclan's decision is final. This is an obvious sign, they have decreed Froststar a right to her part of the forest. Frostclan has been recognized as its own clan.

Even Greystar can't argue this. Rainclan can't deny what's just happened in front of them.

Anger flares between Flamestar and Greystar. Disbelief, betrayal. Neither can understand nor tolerate the other's actions.

For the first time in known memory, the Gathering ends on a bitter, spiteful note.

As all warriors disperse, the medicine cats stay behind. Froststar stays with Moonwhisper, just in case.

Moonwind meets the cat who replaced her, a male tortoiseshell named Maplepelt, and Rainclan's own medicine cat, a cold, sharpened tom named Iceleaf.

Iceleaf and Froststar glare at each other. They share not a word.

The three medicine cats, despite their difference in clans, chose to continue the act of sharing herbs. Medicine cats exist outside of clan disputes, their responsibilities must remain unwavering. Now more than ever, in the face of a possible war, they must keep to their duties, and that includes those they owe each other. 

They agree to meet the following day, and each go their separate ways.

Not long after that, Froststar and Moonwind travel to make her leadership official, so that Froststar might receive her nine lives. They go to the Moon-pool, and at Moonwind's command, Frostwhisper puts her nose to the water, and falls asleep.

Nine cats come to her in her dreams. Most of them she doesn't know. They each grant her a life, and with it, a gift of strength.

The only cat she meets during the ceremony that she knows...is her sister. Now a Starclan cat. She gives the gift of 'sympathy.'

"You're still here..." Froststar murmurs. She presses her face against Nightwhispers side, feeling her tail curl about her in kind. "You're okay! I'm so sorry. For hurting you, last time. I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that..."

Nightwhisper's tail tightens. "You're forgiven."

And there are things she wants to talk about, but there is a time and place, and this is neither.

It is Nightwhisper who raises her voice and calls out Froststar's name, her fellow Starclan cats following suit, ringing through the air. Pride fills her chest, and finally, she feels the sense of responsibility and accomplishment that she missed during her warrior ceremony. 

She awakes next to Moonwind, feeling more determined and ready than ever. They return home, tails intertwined as they walk.

In Starclan, Nightwhisper and Redstar sit together. A small gathering of other cats linger at their sides.

Things were going to be difficult in the coming years. While Sunclan and Frostclan were on good terms, Rainclan now had a wedge between them and both the other clans.

Worse still, Starclan was divided. The anger down below spread out through their ancestors up above. The core problems existed in both the living and in the dead. 

Redstar holds her tail around Nightwhisper's shoulder, hugging her into her side. They stare back at the entirety of Silverpelt, an overwhelming adversary. 

Change was coming. The frost was here. 

This time, it was them, the members of Starclan, who needed to have faith in the cats who were living.


End file.
